Gensokian war of the worlds
by Textspeak
Summary: When the chances of anything coming from mars are a million to one. that one is never a good thing. Oneshot, slight Akyuu X Renko
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** This oneoff fanfiction is told from the perspective of Akyuu BTW. I could've done it from the perspective of Aya, as she actually IS a journalist but it would make more sense if the main character was more human/weaker/unable to fly. This is a retelling of Jeff Wayne's interpretation of war of the worlds except in gensokyo with substituted characters. It would be advisable to read this while listening to **War of the worlds, a new generation.** There will be a few incompatibilities with the lines but that cannot be helped. I would record this and put it up on youtube for you to listen to while you read but I don't have enough female voice actors and I'm sure you don't want me trying to voice alice, but regardless of that, Enjoy!

* * *

 **~Headcanon of the week~**

Japan's enma/yama is shikieiki, but europe's enma/yama is morgan freeman

* * *

No one would've believed, in the last years of the 20th century, that gensokyan affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space…

No one could've dreamed that we were being scrutinised, as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

Few even considered the possibility of life on other planets (besides the moon).

And yet, from across the gulf of space. Minds immeasurably superior to ours, regarded gensokyo with envious eyes.

And slowly, and surely…

They drew their plans against us.


	2. Chapter 2

At midnight, on the twelfth of hazuki, a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from mars and sped towards earth.

I made contact with Eirin the astronomer, and we hurried to her observatory.

Across two hundred million miles of void, invisibly hurtling towards us came the first of the missiles that were to bring so much calamity to gensokyo.

As we watched, there was another jet of gas. It was another missile, starting on its way…

* * *

And that's how it was for the next 10 nights… a Flare, spurting out from mars… Bright green, and drawing a green mist behind it.

A beautiful but somehow disturbing sight. Eirin assured me we were in no danger, maybe a giant volcanic eruption was in progress. Whatever the cause, she was convinced there could be no living thing on that remote… forbidding planet.

"The chances of anything coming from mars are a million to one!" she said.

"The chances of anything coming from mars are a million to one… but still, they come…" I muttered.

* * *

Then came the night the first missile approached gensokyo.

Hundreds saw it, but thought it was an ordinary falling star. The moon rabbit said it fell with a hissing sound, said that it landed with a green flash.

But the next day there was a huge crater in the middle of the bamboo forest, and Eirin, rigid with excitement came to examine what lay there.

A cylinder, thirty yards across, glowing hot, and with faint sounds of movement coming from within.

Suddenly the top began moving… rotating… unscrewing, and Eirin feared there was a person inside trying to escape.

She rushed to the cylinder but the intense heat stopped her before she could burn herself on the still glowing metal.

 _"_ _The chances of anything coming from mars are a million to one!" she said_

 _"_ _The chances of anything coming from mars are a million to one, but still, they come."_

* * *

It seems totally incredible to me now that… everyone spent that evening as though it was just like… any other?..

From the forge came the sound of clanging metal, ringing and rumbling. Softened almost into melody by the distance…

It all seemed so safe, and tranquil…

* * *

Next morning, a crowd gathered in the bamboo forest, hypnotised by the unscrewing of the cylinder.

Two feet of shining screw projected when, suddenly.

The lid fell off.

Two luminous, disk like eyes appeared above the rim.

A huge rounded bulk larger than an oni rose up slowly, glistening like wet leather.

It's lipless mouth quivered and slavered, and snakelike tentacles writhed as the clumsy body heaved and pulsated.

A few fairies crept closer to the pit.

A tall funnel rose and an invisible ray of heat leapt from fairy to fairy, and there was a bright glare as each was instantly turned to fire.

Every tree or bamboo became a mass of flames at the touch of this… savage. Unearthly heat ray.

People clawed their way out of the forest, and I ran too!

I felt like I was being toyed with, that when I was on the very verge of safety this mysterious death would leap after me and strike me down.

At last I reached Eintei where I was staying for a while and looked around me astonished at the tranquillity of the scene.

But once inside, I wrote an account for perfect memento in strict sense and sank into a restless, haunted sleep.

* * *

I awoke to alien sounds of hammering from the pit, and ran to the crow tengu's stand to buy the newspaper.

 _"_ _Oi everyone! Men from mars! MEN FROM MARS!"_

The news tengu explained, one or two adventurous rabbits had crawled near to the martians in the night, never to be seen again.

Yet around me, the daily routine of life: Working, eating, sleeping. Was continuing serenely as it had for countless years…

Deep within the forest, the martians continued hammering and stiring, sleepless indefatigable, at work upon the machines they were making. Now and again, a light like the beam of one of the kappa's warship searchlights swept the forest, and the heat ray was ready to follow.

That afternoon, a company of incident resolvers came through and deployed along the edge of the pit to form a cordon.

That evening there was a violent crash, and I realised with horror that eintei was now within range of a martians heat ray.

Later that night, a falling star with a trail of green mist landed with a flash like summer lightning, this was the second cylinder.

* * *

The hammering from the pit, and the whizzing and hissing of Danmaku grew louder.

My fears rose at the sound of someone creeping into the house.

Then I saw it was a young magician, weary, her blue dress streaked with blood and two dolls hanging limply by her shoulders.

"Is there anyone here?"

"Come in," I beckoned "Here, drink this" I grabbed a cup of lukewarm tea. The response was immediate, she lit up like a torch.

"Thank you." She coughed a bit, but I pressed on.

"What's happened?"

"They wiped us out! Reimu dead, maybe marisa too!"

"The heat ray?"  
"The martians!" she cried. "they were inside the hoods of… machines they'd made, massive metal things on legs, Giant machines that walked! They attacked us… they wiped us out…"

"Machines?" I asked

"Fighting machines, Picking up resolvers and _BASHING_ them against trees!" She mimed the action with her hands. "Just hunks of metal, but they knew EXACTLY what they were doing."

"Ugh." I groaned. "There was another cylinder came last night,"

"Yes," she responded "Yes it looked bound for the human village…"

The village? Renko!

I hadn't dreamed there could be danger to Renko so many miles away.

"I must go to the village at once!"

"And me!" the magician raised a hand. "Got to report to the shrine, if there's anything left of it…"

* * *

We set out on foot, at kourindo we found it deserted.

"Is everybody dead?" the magician asked

"Not everybody, look!" I pointed up the road "Six kappa, with spellcards standing by."

"It's bows and arrows against the lightning." The magician scoffed. "They haven't seen the heat ray yet…"

We hurried along the road towards the Scarlet devil mansion.

Suddenly there was a heavy explosion: The ground heaved, windows shattered and gusts of smoke erupted into the air.

"LOOK! The magician cried. "There they are! WHAT DID I TELL YOU!?"

Quickly, one after the other, four of the fighting machines appeared. Monstrous tripods higher than the tallest building, striding over the pine trees and smashing them. Walking engines of glittering metal. Each carried a huge funnel, and I realised that I had seen this awful thing before!

A fifth machine appeared on the other side of kourindou. In an instant it raised itself to full height, flourished the funnel high in the air…

And the ghostly, terrible heat ray struck the shop.

As it struck, all five fighting machines exulted emitting deafening howls which roared like thunder!

 **"** **OOOOOOOHLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHH!"**

The once fairly strong looking mostly wooden building burnt like a match and was quickly reduced to rubble, but the Martians didn't stop, the heat ray plunged down again and again until there was no sign that Rinnosuke had ever set up a shop here in the first place.

The six kappa, drew their spellcards and fired simultaneously, decapitating a fighting machine. Spellcard rules forgotten, the Martian inside the hood was slain SPLASHED to the four winds, and the body, nothing now but an intricate device of metal went whirling to destruction.

As the other monsters advanced, people ran away blindly – The magician among them- but I jumped into a stream, and hid below the surface until forced up to breath.

Now the Kappa fired again, but this time, the heat ray sent them all to oblivion.

Suddenly, the Machines turned on me.

With a white flash, the heat ray swept across the river, Scalded, half-blinded and agonized I staggered through leaping hissing water towards the shore.

I fell helplessly in full sight of the Martians expecting nothing but death!

The foot of a fighting machine came down close to my head, then lifted again as the four martians carried away the debris of their fallen comrade, and I realised that by a miracle, I had escaped.

* * *

For three days I stumbled across desolate roads, only rarely seeing another refugee, like the night sparrow, or the Immortal Mokou. (Although why she fled from these things was anybody's guess.)

Always carrying what little valuables they could on bags on their backs. All that was of value to me was in the Village.

By the time I had reached their little thatched roof house, Renko and her cousin had gone.

 _The summer sun is fading as the year grows old. And darker days are drawing near._

 _The winter winds will be much colder, Now you're not here…_

 _I watch the birds fly south across the autumn sky,_

 _And one by one they disappear… I wish that I was flying with them. Now you're not here._

 _Like the sun through the trees you came to love me,_

 _Like a leaf on the breeze you blew away!_

 _Through autumns golden gown we used to kick our way._

 _You always loved this time of year…_

 _Those fallen leaves lie undisturbed now, cus you're not here._

Fire suddenly caught and leapt from house to house, the population panicked and ran! And I was swept along with them.

Finally I headed eastward for the Sanzu River, and my only hope of survival. Refuge with the dead… I wondered why the village hadn't been hidden but I soon found the answer, in the form of the dead body of a hakutaku barely recognizably charred black.

 _Like the sun through the trees you came to love me_

 _Like a leaf on the breeze you blew away!_

 _A gentle rain falls softly on my weary eyes…_

 _As if to hide the lonely tears._

 _My life will be forever autumn. Now you're not here!_

 _Cus you're not here._

 _Cuz you're not here…_

As I hastened through street after street, more and more people joined the painful exodus.

Sad, weary women, their children stumbling streaked with tears. Their men bitter and angry.

The rich rubbing shoulders with beggars and outcasts.

Dogs snarled and whined and the horse's bits were covered with foam.

And here and there were wounded soldiers, as helpless as the rest of us…

We saw tripods wading across the mysty lake, shooting through groups of fairies and as if they were nothing!

Cirno's friends,

Rumia and daiyousai

One, appeared above the Mansion!

 **"** **OOOOOOOHLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHH!"**

* * *

Never before in the history of gensokyo had such a mass of humans and youkai moved and suffered together, this was no disciplined march, it was a stampede! Without order and without a goal.

60,000 unarmed and unprovisioned driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of civilisation.

Of the massacre, of all living beings.

A vast crowd buffeted me towards the already packed kappa boat that komachi had now occupied.

I looked up enviously at those safely on board, straight into the eyes of my beloved Renko. At sight of me she began to fight her way along the packed deck to the gangplank, at that very moment, it was raised. And I caught a last glimpse of her… Despairing face, as the crowd swept me away from her.

 _Like the sun through the trees you came to love me_

 _Like a leaf on the breeze you blew away!_

 _Through autumns golden gown we used to kick our way._

 _You always loved this time of year…_

 _Those fallen leaves lie undisturbed now._

 _Cus you're not here!  
cus you're not here!  
Cus you're noooot here!_

* * *

 **"** **OOOOOOOHLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHH!"**

My internal monologue was cut short by the cry of a fighting machine.

The steamer began to move slowly away, but on the landward horizon appeared the silhouette of a fighting machine.

Another came, and another! Striding over hills and trees! Plunging fire out into the river and blocking the exit of the steamer!

From the other bank, came the appeared the silent grey kappa ironclad Battleship, _Thunderchild_.

Slowly it moved towards shore, then with a deafening roar and whoosh of spray, it swung about and drove at full speed towards the waiting martians!

 _There were people of shapes and sizes, scattered out around the bay_

 _And I thought I heard her calling, AS the steamer pulled away!_

 _The invaders must have seen them, as across the coast they filed_

 _Standing firm between them…_

 _THERE LAY THUNDERR CHIILD!_

 _Moving swiftly through the water, cannons blazing as she came._

 _Brought a mighty metal warlord,_

 _CRASHING down in sheets of flame!_

 _Sensing victory was nearing, thinking fortune must've smiled._

 _People started cheering!_

 _"_ _Come on thunder child! Come on thunder chiiiild!"_

The martians released clouds of noxious black smoke, but the ship sped on! Cutting down the second tripod figure, it swayed momentarily before plunging down into the black waters of the sanzu.

Instantly, the final one raised its funnel, and the heat ray plunged down onto the thunderchild's upraised deck!

The bow of the ship glowed red, and the water around it steamed and boiled!

Slowly as the ship listed to port, it's rear turret suddenly snapped towards the tripod! But without hesitation, it fired two luminous green lazer shots into the ship, creating a giant green explosion throwing kappa into the bubbling hissing water below.

The martian put two more shots into the side of the ship, smaller guns popping out of barbettes and into the water as it slowly dismembered our last hope for survival…

 _Dashing hopes and smashing timbers,_

 _Flashing heat rays pierced the deck, dashing hopes for our deliverance_

 _AS we watched the sinking wreck!_

 _With the smoke of battle clearing, over greys and waves defiled…_

 _Slowly disappearing…_

 _Farewell Thunder child!_

When the smoke cleared, Komachi's steamer had reached the misty bank of the river. But the thunder child had vanished forever, taking with her our last hope of victory.

The leaden sky was lit by green flashes, as cylinder following cylinder and no one and nothing was left now to fight them.

Gensokyo Belonged to the martians…


	3. Chapter 3

Next day, the dawn was a brilliant fiery red… and I wandered through the weird and… lurid landscape of another planet.

For the vegetation which gives mars its red appearance had now taken root in gensokyo.

As we had succumbed to the martians, now our land succumbed to the red weed.

Wherever there was a steam, the red weed clung and grew with frightening voraciousness. Its claw-like fronds choking the movement of the water, and then it began to creep like a slimy red animal across the land, covering field, and ditch, and tree, and hedgerow, with living scarlet feelers.

Crawling…

 **Crawling…**

Suddenly I noticed the body of a monk lying on the ground infront of a ruined temple.

I felt unable to leave her to the mercy of the red weed, and decided to bury her. Decently.

"BYAKUREN! BYAAAKUURENN!"

The monks eyes flickered open.

She was alive!?

"Byakuren! I saw the temple burst into flames are you alright?" a concerned looking youkai aproached

"Don't touch me!" she waved her off.

"But it's me, shou. Your friend!" The youkai attempted to console the monk, but failed.

"No, you're one of them. A DEVIL!"

"She's delirious…" she turned to me

"LIES!" the monk interrupted her. "I saw the devils sign!"

"What are you saying?" The youkai continued to question her, I was on the verge of backing away but I couldn't just leave these two alone.

"The green flash in the sky! Her demons were here all along! in our hearts and souls! Just waiting from a sign from her… and now they're DESTROYING OUR WORLD!"

"But they're not devils, shinki's long dead! They're martians!"

I spoke up.

"We must leave here." I suggested. Just in case a fighting machine turns up and barbeques us all.

"Look a house still standing, come byakuren." The youkai grabbed Byakurens hand and pulled her along.

We took shelter in an abandoned cottage, and black smoke spread, hemming us in.

Then the fighting machine came across the field, spraying jets of steam that turned the smoke into thick, black dust.

 **"** **OOOOOOOHLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHH!"**

"Dear god help us!" the Tiger youkai covered her eyes.

"THE VOICE OF THE DEVIL! IS HEARD IN OUR LAND!" the monk cried out

 _"_ _Listen, do you hear them drawing near, in their search for the sinners!_

 _Feeding on the power of our fear, and the evil WITHIN UUSS!_

 _Incarnation of Shinki's creation of all that we dread!_

 _When the demons arrive, those ALIVE! Would be better off dead!"_

 _"There must be something worth living for._

 _The must be something worth trying FOR!_

 _Even something worth DYING for…_

 _If one man can stand tall, there would be some hope for us all._

 _Somewhere, somewhere in the spirit of man…"_

 _"_ _Once there was a time when I believed, without hesitation._

 _That the power of love and truth would conquer all. IN THE NAME OF SALVATION!_

 _Tell me what kind of weapon, is love when it comes to the fight._

 _And just how much protection IS TRUTH, against all Shinki's might?!"_

 _"_ _There must be something worth living for._

 _The must be something worth trying FOR!_

 _Even something worth DYING for…_

 _If one man can stand tall, there must be some hope for us all._

 _Somewhere, somewhere in the spirit of man…"_

"People loved you… and trusted you…" Shou said slowly. "Came to you for help!"

"Didn't I warn them this would happen?!" The monk hugged her knees close to her chest. "Be on your guard I said! For the evil one NEVER rests… I SAID EXCORSIZE THE DEVIL! But they didn't listen… the demons inside them grew and grew… until Shinki gave her signal. AND DESTROOOYEED THE WORLD WE KNEW!"

She stood up, and slowly cast out her arm in a wide circle as she spoke

 _"_ _Now darkness has descended upon our land, and all your prayers cannot save us! Like fools we've let the devil take command OF the souls that god GAVE USS!_

 ** _TO_** **** ** _The alt_** ** _ar of_** ** _Evil_** ** _Like lambs_** ** _To_** ** _The slaughter_** ** _We're led._**

 _When the demons arrive, the SURVIVORS will envy the dead!"_

 _"_ _There must be something worth living for-"  
"No there is nothing!"  
"There must be something worth trying for-"  
"I don't believe it's so!"  
"Even somethings worth DYING for! IF just one man could stand tall, there would be some hope for us all._

 _Somewhere in the spirit of man…"_

"Forget about goodness and mercy," Byakuren clasped her hands together and stared at the ground. "They're gone."

Suddenly, there was a gut-wrenching crash, the sound of twisting, grating metal as the roof itself caved in ontop of us! The entire house seemed to disintegrate around us and the ground quivered and shook.

"Dear god, a cylinders landed on the house! And we're underneath it! In the pit!" Byakuren exclaimed.

"Shou, SHE'S DEAD!" she scrambled around the remains of the house. "BURRIED UNDER THE RUBBLE! WHY! SHINKI WHY WOULD YOU TAKE ONE OF YOUR OWN!

The monk was right, we were now running across wide open fields, past the mysty lake until we made it to the scarlet devil mansion. We could see tripod figures striding around in the distance, merely hoping we were not spotted until we made it to the front gate.

Sure enough, the house was deserted, dusty and empty. There were cracks on the walls and the clock tower had been completely destroyed. But nevertheless we took refuge inside the building.

The martians spent the night building a new machine, it was a squat metallic spider with Huge articulated claws, but it too had a hood in which a martian sat.

We watched it pursuing some tengu across a field. It caught them nimbly and tossed them into a great metal basket upon its back.

Then on the ninth day, we saw the martians eat.

Inside the hood of their new machine they were draining the fresh living blood of Humans and youkai, and injecting it into their own veins.

"IT's a sign!" Byakuren cried out! "I've been given a sign! They must be cast out! And **_I_** have been chosen to do it"

"I must confront them now!" She stood up.

"No Byakuren no!" I tried to stop her but she would not listen to me!  
"Those machines are just demons in another form! I shall destroy them with my prayers! I shall burn them with my holy cross (Wait I thought Byakuren was a Buddhist…) I SHALL-"*SMACK*

Immediately I raised my fist and swung it, it connected with the monks temple (no pun intended) and she sank like a rock to the ground.

The curious eye of a martian appeared at the window slit, and a menacing claw explored the room.

I dragged the monk down to Flandre's basement, but I could hear the martian fumbling at the latch.

In the darkness I could see the claw touching things: walls, coal, wood.

And then it touched my boot.

I almost shouted!

For a long while it was still, then with a click, it gripped something.

The monk!

With slow deliberate movements, her unconscious body was dragged away and there was nothing I could do to prevent it.

After several hours of silence, I crept to the blocked windowslit and peered through the creeper.

The martians and all of their machinery had gone. Trembling, I dug my way out and clambered to the top of a hill, not a martian in sight!

The day seemed dazzlingly bright after my imprisonment, and the sky a glowing blue. Red weed covered every scrap of ground, but a gentle breeze kept it swaying and oh… the sweetness of the air…

Once again I found myself on the way to the human village. It astounded me how our kingdom had been taken so quickly and without error by these creatures that were composes entirely of brain. Unhampered by the complex systems which make up man (and youkai) they built and used new bodies to suit their needs. They never tired, never slept and never suffered. Having long since eliminated the bacteria and other minutia that cause all manner of fevers and other morbidities.

There were a dozen dead bodies in the entrance road, their outlines softened by the black dust.

All was still, houses locked and empty, shops closed…

But looters had helped themselves to sake and food, and outside my own house, some of my gold chains and a watch were scattered on the pavement.

Quickly, the stillness grew even more profound. An odd… unnerving feeling of suspense, as if the destruction which annihilated the countryside might at any moment strike these gracious houses in the centre of the village, and leave them all in smoking ruins

 **"** **OOOOOOOHLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHH!"**

I stopped. Staring towards the sound. It seemed as if that mighty desert of houses had found a voice for its fear and solitude

 **"** **OOOOOOOOOOOHLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHH!"**

The desolating cry worked upon my mind, the wailing took possession of me! But I was intensely weary, footsore, hungry and thirsty.

Why was I wandering alone in this city of the dead? Why was I alive when the village was lying in state in this black shroud.

I felt intolerably lonely, drifting from street to Empty Street. Drawn inexorably towards that cry.

 **"** **OOOOOOOOOOOOOHLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHH!"**

I saw over the trees of the unnamed hill, the fighting machine from which the howling came. I crossed a canal, -now a spongey mass of glowing vegetation- and pushed onwards towards unnamed hill. There stood a second machine, upright but as still as the first.

 **"** **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH-"**

Abruptly, the sound ceased. Suddenly the desolation, the solitude became unendurable.

While that voice sounded the village still seemed alive, now suddenly there was a change, the passing of something, and all that remained was this… Gaunt quiet…

I looked up, and saw a third machine. It was erect and motionless like the others.

And insane resolve possessed me: **I would give my life to the martians here and now!**

I marched recklessly towards the titan and saw that a multitude of black birds were circling and clustering around the hood.

I began running along the road! I felt no fear! Only a wild, Trembling exultation as I ran up the hill towards the motionless monster.

Out of the hood hung red shreds, at which the hungry birds now pecked and tore!

I scrambled up the crest of unnamed hill, the martians camp was below me. A mighty space it was, and scattered about it in their overturned machines were the martians.

 **DEAD.**

Slain after all gensokyos spellcards had failed by the humblest things upon the earth.

Bacteria, Minute invisible bacteria.

Directly the invaders arrived and drank and fed…

Our microscopic allies attacked them, from that moment.

 **They were doomed…**


End file.
